the Aragó Press

THE BOOK AS A WORK OF ART
The ethos behind the "Book" project was that students, first at Chelsea School of Art and then at Anglia, should consider the book as a work of art in its own right. For some this was a matter of using traditional styles and techniques to illustrate text in an imaginative way. For others it was a matter of stretching the definition of the book in a to the point that there were very few, if any links, to traditional book making. However, many people used the experience to combine words and images in very individual and imaginative way.

CONTACT

Arvon Wellen at the Aragó Press

artists' books

ARTIST'S BOOKS

BOOK ARTS / LIVRES D'ARTISTES

This Artist's Book site contains background material about books made by artists where the idea of the book is interpreted very broadly. The site contains pages relating to the printing and making of books and is concerned with experimentation as well as with the tradition of fine printing. There are also sections on printing presses, type founding and methods of printing illustration, from woodcuts to digital printing. The Private Press now has its own page.

This site is now listed on INTUTE; the UCLA library; as well as DMOZ, the Open Directory Project, which is the largest, most comprehensive human-edited directory of the Web.

Useless Mouths: an exhibition of 100 artists' books: Gibraltar House, London, 16th to the 19th of October 2012: further details at the bottom of this page or HERE at Arturo Casciaro's web site

The Sunderland Book Project will be at Pyramid Atlantic’s Book Art Fair & Conference in Silver Spring MD 16,17 & 18 November. More details at the bottom of this page or at THERESA EASTON'S web site HERE.

Picasso: Ovid: Metamorphoses, published by Albert Skira 1930; Sheet 325 x 255mm, 12.8 x 10.04 "; paper: Arches laid; a series of 30 etchings on copper; text printed in letterpress; edition of 145 printed by Louis Fort in 1931 before the cancellation of the plates

Perhaps the Artist's Book is difficult to define because, as a late twentieth century phenomenon, it has not yet truly defined itself. My own view is that if an artist decides that a piece of their work is an Artist's book, then it is. However, there are many common factors within many of these books. Some may be seen as containers or packages in which there is text or image or information of some kind. That information could take the form of a printed image or hand made image or it may be an object existing in its own right.

The Artist's book may also step outside of the traditional binding or box and present itself as something beyond the containment of the book structure that we know so well.

Whatever the structure another possible common factor could be that text, images or objects are presented in series or sequence. In the way that an exhibition of paintings may say more to us than a single painting, or a film may say more than a single photograph then a series of images of any kind may say more to us than one single one and the "book" is the ideal form for this to take.

Arvon Wellen 2010

The Sunderland Book Project

The next exhibition location for The Sunderland Book Project will be at Pyramid Atlantic’s Book Art Fair & Conference in Silver Spring MD 16,17 & 18 November.

From around the country The Sunderland Book Project brings together artists, designers, comic makers, printmakers and those new to artist’s book making. The project brief asks participants to make a book, (using whatever production methods required) on the subject of the City of Sunderland.
Showing alongside The Sunderland Book Project is a collection of artist’s bookwork from Beijing from the private collection of established artist’s bookmaker, Sumi Perera, as well as work from the collection of Sarah Bodman, Research Fellow in Artist’s Book at the University of West of Englandand current book work in glass and paper from Theresa Easton.

Follow the link here:

photo: Artist's Book by Theresa Easton

more about Theresa here:

Arturo Casciaro
Useless mouths : Artists’ voices

A Gibraltar born artist living in Hampshire is exhibiting 100 books made by artists from around the world. The Exhibition at Gibraltar House in the heart of London, runs from the 16th to the 19th of October 2012, viewing times from noon to 6.00pm.

Artists’ books are works of art made using the book format as the medium. Though different artists interpret the medium in different ways, a common thread in all of them is intimacy: the artwork can be held, explored and experienced.
“I own 100 artists’ books made by different artists. Each book has been acquired in the last 12 months through exchange with other artists. I have made a book and given it to one of the artists, they in turn made a book and gave it to me. No money has changed hands and no contracts have been entered into.
As well as face to face book exchanges between friends and family, there are also exchanges with individuals I have never met.”
The artists are from England, Gibraltar, South Africa, Iran, Argentina, Mexico, Chile, Uruguay, Spain, Puerto Rico, USA, Brazil, Czech Republic and Scotland.